Category: United States

I woke up Tuesday morning in Las Vegas. The bus didn’t leave until 10:45am local time, and I was still on Kansas time. That meant my internal clock thought I should be up at 6:45. If you know me, you know I’m not a morning person. I decided to make the most of it, though, and caught my last sunrise in the U.S. for a few months as it came up over the Strip. After a long, hot shower, I went down to the lobby and got a coffee. Not a bad way to start the morning. … Read More

First stop on my adventure: Las Vegas. The flight leaving Wichita was late getting in and leaving, but I ran into my friend Brittany at the airport, getting off the plane I was getting ready to get on. I finally arrived Sunday night around 11pm, grabbed my pack from the baggage claim, and hopped on the shuttle to the hotel. By the time I got checked in and made it to my room, it was after 1am, so I crashed for the night. … Read More

I’m not a fan of carrying much cash. 99% of my purchases are made on a debit or credit card. I like to travel that way, too. It’s safer, I have immediate record of it with my mobile banking app, and I’m protected against fraud by my bank should my card be stolen. That being said, there are plenty of instances where cash is required or just more convenient. … Read More

The only real planning I’m doing prior to setting off for my trip, besides the airline tickets I’ll need, is obtaining the necessary travel visas for countries I plan to visit. Some of them, like New Zealand and Singapore, don’t require visas to be obtained in advance. They’re issued “on arrival” when you go through Customs at your destination airport.

Others require a little bit of preparedness, like Vietnam. I used the website VietnamVisaOnline.net to get mine and it was only $25 USD. You can opt to pay an additional $10 for expedited processing. … Read More

I’ve never left myself time for much planning, and this first big adventure will be no different. In less than two weeks, I’m hitting the road.

I’ll fly from here to New Zealand to go backpacking for 3 weeks (it’s summer there right now). After that, around the middle of April, I’ll fly from New Zealand to Vietnam, spend a week or so there hanging out with my friend Scott on the beaches of the South China Sea, and then on to Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. … Read More